Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1887-06-18
THE RACE TRACK Road.
Tho County Commissioners at Logger
beads with the Owners OF the ray
Streak LodeCIai for That Portion o'
The Road.

/ hJe over one oil their rOads-tnaU 'ea"'"e
from Arizona street to the race track OF,
rather, that portion it crossing Noyee
placer claim. The representative o. ihA
MINER had q conversation with the mem.
hers Of the Board, at the conclusion OF
their session yesterday, and gathered lroni
them the following statement OF their view
of the matter: Last year the then board
of County Commissioners. at the request o,
several c~itisens. ordered a road
to be built in communal
tion of the road built that is the contl.u-
alton of Arizona street down through the
Moves placer claim. Permission was freely
given by Mr.: Noyes when asked TO run
Through his ground, and that was all that
was supposed to be necessary. Itapp'ars'
however, that as far back as 1881 Messrs.
Mantle and Largey had located q quart
claim on Neyes' placer ground, or what ne
claimed to be his, and the County survey,
Or ran the road he was directed to build
through this quartz claim, as he asserts IN
ignorance of their possessory rights. Ihey
offered no objection to the road, gave no
notification that their ground would be in
fripped upon orthat they would claim DAM
ages on account OF it. The present Board
of County Commissioners we're therefore
VERY MUCH SURPRISED
at a claim being put in against the County
by Mantle & Co. for $4,000 for damages
on their quartz claimby the said Race
Track road. The commissioners assert
that the road was not built after proper
preliminary proceedings and that there
fore it is not a county road as such and
the County has no right to maintain title
in the road. event. it has cost them already
in the n%eighborhood of $4,000 or $4,000.
They say to the damaged parties, VERY
well. II the quartz claim is your and
Moves had no permission to give our sur
veyor in laying the road, take it. We have
no interest in it and don't own it," They
are certain that the road never belonged
to the County, since proper prelimlnarles
were not observed in building it, and there
fore they don't give it up, since they can
not as the County never properly owned
it. But they do protest at the action OF
Mantle & Co. in allowing the Dad to be
built and then coming in with a big claim
for damages. This statement seeming to
place Mr.. Mantle and his associates III a
rather unepviable light an
OPPORTUNITY WAS AFFORDED
that gentleman to make a statement OF his
side of the case, and in reply to questions,
Mr.. Mantle spoke substantially as follows:
THE owners OF the Paw streak quartz
claim, which is the one you refer to as on
the Noyes placer claim. never asked the
Commissioners to build the road through
their claim. Neither are they any more
interested in the Race Track than other
citizens. In common with others, l for
n did petition the Commissioners to
build a road from the railroad crossing
across the bottom to the other side OF
Silver Bow ere elk. At that time this por-
ton of the road was in a horrible condi-
ton. There was not a day that some
loaded team was not mired dow and
wood and ore haulers made a practice OF
doubling up their teams in order to get
across without getting stalled. For
sal demand upon all sides that
this portion of the road should be put in
some sort OF repair. The road from Ari-
IONA street to the depot, however, was
never SO. very bad and l never ga or heard
OF any petition asking for the construction
of Ia road between those points. None OF
the owners of the Pay Streak were ever
consulted about this road. The three Com
missioners, without process OF law, went
ahead and constructed the road, laying it
out over entirely new ground. notwith-
standing there was another public road
running parallel TO it within 100 feet, also
on our ground. Mr.. Noyes says the Com
missiOners
AsKED HIS CONBENT
to run the road and that he gave it. but it
happens that the District and Supreme
Courts of this Territory have decided that
the Pay Streak claim does not belong to
Mr.. Noyes, although he holds a placer
patent to the ground. The present Commits
sioners argue hat we should nave pro-
tested against the building of the road in
question at the time it was built. Perhaps
we should; but should not the Commission
ers have proceeded legally to condemn the
road and indemnify the owners Of the
land before constructing it? If you
build a house upon another mans
land you do it at your own risk The
statement of the present Commissioners
that the road was built at our request or
for our benefit any more than for the bene-
fit of themselves or any other citizen OF the
county is incorrect. They have no author
ity for making such a statement. The
Pay Rtreak claim lies contiguous to the
city. The surface ground is valuable, and
it has already cost us a large sum of
money. The road in question and the ex-
cavations made in constructing it have
destroyed a large strip of the surface rum
ming %diagonally through the claim. a dis
lance OF about 800 feet. As stated before,
there are now two roads running through
our ground, destroying about one-haIf Of
the claim, and we feel that we are entitled
to some compensation for the damage"